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Saguaro National Park

Monday, January 22, 2018

Every year, when I was younger, my mom would pack the car and we would set out for a road trip for a week. This was the only time that my sister and I would fight over the back seat (long before kids had to be in their car seats until the age of 12). The lucky winner would make themselves comfortable for the long journey ahead. Arranging the back with sleeping bags, pillows, books, games, their Nintendo, and their trusty Walkman. Yup, remember those?!? Madonna would be on repeat while I belted out Lucky Star for the 50th time ignoring all comments to shut up. Yes, I was the annoying little sister and I wore the badge well. The other would look back at the cozy setup with pure jealousy, asking "Are we there yet?"

Not much has changed since then. I'm a lover of road trips. The difference being, that I no longer have to fight over the back seat and we have even better technology to pass the hours.

To start the new year we set off on a short road trip to the Saguaro National Park. Checking another national park off the list.

The park consists of two districts East Rincon Mountain District and West Mountain District which is separated by the city of Tucson. We visited the West side for no other reason than it was closer.

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The saguaro is an iconic symbol of the southwest and are scattered throughout the park. Being a lover of cacti (except when they are stuck on my leg and clothes...they hurt like a b*tch) it was interesting to learn a little more about them. The saguaro can live up to 200 years and can weigh in at 16,000 lbs! It takes them about 75 years to actually sprout their first branches.

The scenic Bajada Loop Drive is the perfect way to get a taste of the vast desert landscape from the comforts of your car.

We made a stop at Signal Hill which is an easy hike (if you can even call it that, it's basically a short walk up, well, a hill with a few stairs) where you will find petroglyphs that were created by the prehistoric Hohokam people.

Since we live close to the Sonoran Desert we were both a little underwhelmed with the park. Not to say it wasn't beautiful, it was. We are just used to seeing this type of scenery on our daily commutes so the lengthy drive was not really worth it for us.